Hebrew

Coming in January: Hebrew in Harmony will be complete! Teach Hebrew through music with this groundbreaking program that features dozens of today’s top musicians.
Here’s a preview of what’s coming.
New Prayer Modules
Seven more prayers, for a total of 22 prayer modules in the series.
* Aleinu* Ashrei* Birchot HaHaftarah (incl. Eitz Chayim Hi)* Birchot HaTorah (incl. Mi Shebeirach Lacholim, V’zot HaTorah)* Ein Keloheinu, Adon Olam* Hotza’at HaTorah* Kaddish

You don't need to be musical or tech savvy to teach Hebrew in Harmony, our new multimedia prayer curriculum.
In fact, we know not every school has wifi or devices for each student. That's why we have options so you and your students can use the digital piece, whatever your tech situation.

Music is the core of Hebrew in Harmony. It’s what caught the eye of educators at Temple Chai Religious School in Phoenix.
“The music will reach students in their hearts,” says Ariela Ben-Dor, co-principal of the school. “It touches kids on a more emotional level than the cut and dry of teaching the mechanics of prayer.”

Hebrew literacy is not a goal. It is a dream.
That’s not a bad thing—it’s simply a way to distinguish it from a goal. Goals, according to Sean Young, Director of the UCLA Center for Digital Behavior and the UC Institute for Prediction Technology, “are the intermediate plans people make.” They are quantifiable (we’ve all heard of SMART goals, right?) They can be short term (a week or so) or long term (one to three months). Anything that will take longer than three months? That’s a dream.

Want to set an upbeat tone for your Hebrew curriculum, starting on DAY ONE?
Introduce Hebrew in Harmony by focusing first on the music – the driving force behind the program that will help students and teachers connect with the material right away.
(Hebrew in Harmony assumes students can already decode, so be sure you’ve assessed their decoding skills at the beginning of the school year.)

With students back and classes getting underway, now is the right time to set your expectations for student participation in the Online Learning Center, however you choose to use it. Reinforcing those expectations often are key to a successful, engaged year.
Set Expectations
For Hebrew especially, ongoing regular practice is a large part of a successful Hebrew learning experience. When you set clear expectations early on in the school year, you give students and parents guidelines and an idea of how the curriculum will work.

Teaching Hebrew in Harmony this year? Please join us for a 40-minute webinar on Thursday, September 7, at 1:00 PM Eastern, in which we'll learn how the three Hebrew in Harmony components work together — student journal, digital companion, and Curriculum Core.

Help your students refresh their Hebrew skills after the summer slide. Build in a few minutes and some encouragement to get your students reading quickly and confidently as they begin a new year of learning.
Try these resources for effective, quick learning. Students will make progress and see the fun in Hebrew learning.

Whether your students are returning for another year or they’re new to the program, the Hebrew Reading Assessment can help you understand your students’ skills - at every level.
Use these black-line masters to assess accuracy and fluency in decoding, whether it’s the end of a unit of study, the end of a term, or the beginning and end of each year. With every assessment, you will understand where each student is struggling and will be better informed on where the focus should be.

Fall isn't just about new beginnings for children. Adults in many communities are interested in learning to read Hebrew to engage more deeply in Jewish religious life - whether via prayers or readings at a synagogue or the blessings and rituals of home observance. Just as children learn in different, there are different ways of approaching beginner Hebrew for adults.
JoHanna Potts, a rabbi and educator who has taught Hebrew to adults for more than 30 years in the Washington D.C. area, shares some observations about teaching this type of student.

Encourage some playful interaction as well as quiet, mindful reflection with our Behrman House playing cards and student journals. Whether you're looking to teach Hebrew or Jewish values, these materials will get students moving, laughing, and thinking about their lessons in new and memorable ways.
Also available for educators is a new pedagogical resource from Batsheva Frankel. Scroll down to learn more about The Jewish Educator's Companion: Practical Tools & Inspirational Ideas.

There’s no better way to start a new school year than in a place of mindfulness. Educators can get organized from the get go with our newly released teacher planner, to plan, keep track of the holidays, record student attendance, and begin from a place of harmony.

Hungry for new ways to teach Hebrew prayer and connect students with its meaning?
The new Hebrew in Harmony course for 4th-6th graders provides all the ingredients. It's not simply add water and bake, however. You can choose how you use the three key elements to serve your community's unique needs. The flexibility begins with the content: Choose from among 22 units - each devoted to a different prayer - and teach them in any order.
The Three Ingredients
Printed student journal -- One 16-page booklet per prayer

When educators at Congregation M'kor Shalom in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, decided to change the school's Hebrew program, the first thing they did was to get organized.
"We think we teach the right thing at the right time but wanted to shake things up a bit," says Education Director Merle Steinberg. "We spent three months doing the research and work to make sure we knew all of our options."

Interested in a specific curriculum or set of materials? Want to learn more about them? Use this handy guide to read product descriptions and see sample pages. You can also scroll below to see how to contact us for further assistance.

It’s a midweek afternoon, and the bell is ringing at Temple Shaaray Tefila in New York City. Everyone in the office and hallway stops to applaud the child who rang the bell. In this school, it sometimes happens 20 times a day.
The bell sits on the desk of Connie Heymann, principal of Shaaray Tefila’s religious school, which has about 500 students. Whenever a student completes a unit of Mitkadem, the self-paced Hebrew program, he or she comes to Heymann’s office and rings the bell.

Coming April 1: the digital companions to five new prayers from the Hebrew in Harmony series.
The new available prayers are:
*Avot V’imahot*Birchot Shalom*G’vurot*K’dushah* V’ahavta
The five additional digital prayers will offer you the choice of either the Reform or Conservative variation.